Led by Gönenç Gürkaynak, ELIG Gürkaynak’s competition practice has wide expertise in Turkish antitrust law
ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law is an eminent, independent Turkish law firm based in Istanbul. The firm was founded in 2005.
ELIG Gürkaynak is committed to providing its clients with high-quality legal services. We combine a solid knowledge of Turkish law with a business-minded approach to develop legal solutions that meet the ever-changing needs of our clients in their international and domestic operations.
The legal team consists of 90 lawyers. We take pride in being able to assist our clients in all fields of law. Our areas of expertise particularly include competition law, corporate law, M&A, contracts law, white-collar irregularities and compliance, data protection and cyber security law, litigation and dispute resolution, internet law, technology, media and telecommunications law, intellectual property law, administrative law, real estate law, anti-dumping law, pharma and healthcare regulatory, employment law, and banking and finance law.
Competition law practice area overview
ELIG Gürkaynak delivers the top competition law practice in Turkey with 45 competition law specialists.
It has the largest and most recognised competition practice in Turkey. The team is led by Gönenç Gürkaynak, the firm’s founding partner and a lawyer with many years of competition law experience in Turkey, Brussels and the US, along with four partners, four counsel and 40 associates.
ELIG Gürkaynak represents multinational corporations, business associations, investment banks, partnerships and individuals in the widest variety of competition law matters, while also collaborating with many international law firms.
The firm has established close working relationships with a number of international law firms and has served mutual clients on numerous competition law matters, M&A transactions, commercial arbitration and various other projects.
In addition to unparalleled experience in merger control issues, ELIG Gürkaynak has vast experience in defending companies before the Turkish Competition Board in all phases of antitrust investigations, abuse of dominant position cases, leniency handlings and before courts on issues of private enforcement of competition law, along with appeals of the administrative decisions of the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA).
During the past year, ELIG Gürkaynak has been involved in over 85 merger clearances by the TCA, more than 35 defence projects in investigations and over 15 antitrust appeals before the administrative courts. It also provided more than 75 antitrust education seminars to employees of its clients.
The firm has an in-depth knowledge of representing defendants and complainants in complex antitrust investigations concerning all forms of abuse of dominant position allegations, and all forms of restrictive horizontal and/or vertical arrangements, including price fixing, retail price maintenance, refusal to supply, territorial restrictions and concerted practice allegations.
In addition to significant antitrust litigation expertise, the firm has considerable expertise in administrative law and is well equipped to represent clients before the high state court, both on the merits of a case and for injunctive relief. ELIG Gürkaynak also advises clients on a day-to-day basis in a wide range of business transactions that almost always contain antitrust law issues, including distributorship, licensing, franchising and toll manufacturing issues.
For more information, please contact:Gönenç Gürkaynak, founding partner
ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law, Çitlenbik Sokak, No. 12, Yıldız Mahallesi, Beşiktaş, 34349, Istanbul, Turkey
T: + 90 212 327 17 24 | F: +90 212 327 1725
E: gonenc.gurkaynak@elig.com
Gönenç Gürkaynak is a founding partner of ELIG Gürkaynak Attorneys-at-Law, a leading law firm of 90 lawyers based in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr Gürkaynak graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Law in 1997, and was called to the Istanbul Bar in 1998. He received his LLM degree from Harvard Law School and is qualified to practice in Istanbul, New York, Brussels, and England and Wales (currently a non-practising solicitor). Before founding ELIG Gürkaynak in 2005, he worked as an attorney at the Istanbul, New York and Brussels offices of a global law firm for more than eight years.
Mr Gürkaynak heads the competition law and regulatory department of ELIG Gürkaynak, which currently consists of 45 lawyers. He has unparalleled experience in Turkish competition law counseling issues with more than 20 years of competition law experience, starting with the establishment of the Turkish Competition Authority. Every year Mr Gürkaynak represents multinational companies and large domestic clients in more than 35 written and oral defences in investigations of the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), about 15 antitrust appeal cases in the high administrative court and over 85 merger clearances of the TCA in addition to co-ordinating various worldwide merger notifications, drafting non-compete agreements and clauses, and preparing hundreds of legal memoranda concerning a wide array of Turkish and EC competition law topics.
Mr Gürkaynak frequently speaks at conferences and symposia on competition law matters. He has published more than 150 articles in English and Turkish by various international and local publishers. He also holds teaching positions at undergraduate and graduate levels at two universities, and gives lectures in other universities in Turkey.
